Sinking: Model Daisy Lowe was signed last year to launch a line of swimwear

Meanwhile, KPMG said Bonmarche, also
owned by The Peacock Group, which employs 3,800 staff and operates some
394 stores, has not entered administration and a buyer is being sought
for the business.

Bonmarche filed a notice of
intention to appoint administrators on Monday but this allows 10
working days before the appointment of administrators.

Barclays, the other leading lender, had said it was prepared to continue supporting Peacocks.

Kirk, who owns around 30 per cent, had been
attempting his third buyout. He was paid nearly £1.9m in the year to
2010, up from just under £1.2m the previous year according to the
accounts of Henson No. 1, the holding company for Peacocks.

But supporters describes him as an
‘entrepreneur, not a financial engineer’ and said Kirk stands to lose
the bulk of his multi-million pound fortune.

‘With hindsight, the 2006 buyout was not done at the right time, but he is no Fred Goodwin,’ said one.

Kirk led the first buyout of Peacocks
in 1997 and floated the company on the stock exchange two years later.
In 2006 he spearheaded his second buyout and sold £13.5m of shares,
although he ploughed £12.8m of that back into the business.

The 2006 deal, which saddled Peacocks
with £350m of debt, was backed by Goldman Sachs and US hedge funds
Och-Ziff and Perry Capital.

The hedge fund duo also bankrolled Malcolm Glazer’s takeover of Manchester United in 2005.

Both deals involved controversial
Payment In Kind, or PIK notes, where interest is rolled up so the debt
increases meaning companies need to squeeze their assets harder to
repay.

This time around, Kirk was understood to have sought financial backing from investors in retail business.

Insiders at RBS said the bank’s
restructuring unit, led by Derek Sach, was prepared to sell its debt to
Kirk provided they coudl agree a price. ‘We are not totally the bad guys
in all of this,’ said one.

RBS was understood to have preferred a deal with Kirk to administration, which will saddle it with large losses.

It denied operating a policy of
reducing its exposure to the retail sector. Uncertainty over the future
of Peacocks has put employees and members of the firm’s pension fund on
tenterhooks.

The final salary pension scheme has a
deficit of more than £4m and is likely to go into the Pension Protection
Fund if the company goes into administration.

Kirk’s camp said he is not in a position to make guarantees to pensioners but added he feels a ‘tremendous responsibility’.